The Challenge of Multiple Thermal Comfort Prediction Models: Is TSV Enough?

Abstract

Classroom thermal comfort has a direct effect on student health and educational outcomes. However, measuring thermal comfort (TC) is a non-trivial task. It is represented by several subjective metrics e.g., Thermal Sensation Vote, Thermal Comfort Vote, Thermal Preference Vote, etc. Since machine learning (ML) is being increasingly used to predict occupant comfort, multiple TC metrics for the same indoor space may yield contradictory results. This poses the challenge of selecting the most suitable single TC metric or the minimal TC metric combination for a given indoor space. Ideally, it will be a metric that can be used to predict all other TC metrics and occupant behavior with high accuracy. This work addresses this problem by using a primary student thermal comfort dataset gathered from 11 schools and over 500 unique students. A comprehensive evaluation is carried out through hundreds of TC prediction models using several ML algorithms. It evaluates the ability of TC metrics to predict (a) other TC metrics, and (b) the adaptive behavior of primary students. An algorithm is proposed to select the most suitable single TC metric or the minimal TC metric input combination. Results show that ML models can accurately predict all TC metrics and occupant-adaptive behavior using a small subset of TC metrics with an average accuracy as high as 79%. This work also found Thermal Sensation Vote to be the most significant single TC predictor, followed by Thermal Satisfaction Level. Interestingly, satisfaction with clothing was found to be as equally relevant as thermal preference. Furthermore, the impact of seasons and choice of ML algorithms on TC metric and occupant behavior prediction is shown.